Cal Stuckert signals his return from serious injury with early goal but Chesterton can’t hold early lead and loses season-opener at Northridge, 2-1

Tom Keegan
Onwartrojans.com

Chesterton senior Cal Stuckert reaped the dividends of an offseason of tedious rehabilitation from a broken leg and shredded ankle ligaments suffered in club soccer in the offseason to regain his scoring touch and give the Trojans an early lead in their season-opener at Northridge.
But the Trojans could not finish what theh started and lost, 2-1, Saturday in a game played under a hot sun with temperatures climbing into the low 90s.
“Much better, doing a lot better,” Stuckert said of how his leg feels, shortly before boarding the bus home from Middlebury.
At the same time, Stuckert the Northwest Indiana Times region player of the year as a junior, said he needs more time to whip himself into game shape.
“I’m still getting there,” he said. “I’ve still got a lot more in me. I know every single game that I’m going to get better.”
This marked the fifth consecutive year Chesterton has opened against Northridge and the comparable programs have gone 2-2-1 in those openers with Chesterton scoring nine goals, the Raiders eight.
“It’s a good measure as far as where you’re at after putting in all this work in the summer,” eighth-year Chesterton coach Lucas Sabedra said. “Both teams are motivated coming off the summer camp and going into the season fresh and you try to make a statement right away and only one team can do that. They had a good game. I thought we had a good game. It was just a great game all-around. They just took advantage of opportunities, and we did not.”
Stuckert, who scored 23 goals last season, sent the credit elsewhere for Saturday’s: “It wasn’t really me. It was mostly Cody Baughman and Zarek (Sierazy) with a beautiful cross right to my foot and I just laid it in.”
Sabedra summed up how goals like that happen: “Play quick. You play quick, you create opportunities.”
The Trojans took the 1-0 lead into the intermission and then almost 10 minutes into the second half had the sort of play that sometimes can lead a team to break open the match, but Northridge didn’t let that happen.
After a Chesterton player was called for a foul, Trojans senior goalkeeper Elliott McEvoy read the penalty kick shooter correctly and dove to his right to make the stop to preserve the lead.
Five minutes later, Northridge sophomore Juan Rosales scored a goal in from in front of the net to tie it. Five minutes after that, Raiders senior Julius Esquivias scored a goal that stood up as a game-winner.
The Trojans were able to threaten a few times after that but never could finish. The closest they came was when Sierazy’s shot hit the crossbar, always a frustrating near miss.
“We have to execute when we have the opportunities,” Sabedra said. “Their chances in front of goal, shots on goal, they didn’t have too many, maybe the same amount as we had, but they put theirs away. We did not.”
Although not ranked in the preseason the 3A coaches poll, Northridge always has a competitive program, as do all nine schools on No. 18 Chesterton’s nonconference schedule. Four of them are ranked into the 3A top 20 and two are ranked in the 2A poll.
From the 3A poll, Chesterton plays at No. 1 West Lafayette Harrison (Sep. 20), at No. 9 Concord (Sep. 27), at No. 14 Goshen (Sep. 13), at No. 20 Penn (Sep. 13).
From the 2A poll, the Trojans play No. 5 Illiana Christian (at home Tuesday, Aug. 19) and No. 9 South Bend St. Joseph (at home, Aug. 30). The other two schools outside the DAC on the schedule never are easy outs: at Munster (Sep. 6) and at Hobart (Sep. 29).
It's an extremely challenging schedule. The Chesterton coaches and players wouldn’t have it any other way.
“We have a tough schedule,” Stuckert said. “It’s going to be hard, but it’s going to make us a lot better.”